Bay Area Dart Enthusiast: My Second First Time

Darts: a game where participants compete with one another by throwing small arrow like devices at a target that is round and has numbers and sections and an inner bull with an outer bull and so on. Darts now refer to the standard game with a specific bristle board design and a set of rules. Rules that are general to the game and rules that govern games like, “501,” “301,” and “Cricket.”

Darts is a traditional pub game that was and is commonly played in the United Kingdom as well as other places in Europe and across the pond here in the America’s.

Wikipedia tells hits history in a terse form, i.e., “The dartboard may have its origins in the cross-section of a tree. An old name for a dartboard is "butt"; the word comes from the French word but, meaning "target". In particular, the Yorkshire and Manchester Log End boards differ from the standard board in that they have no treble, only double and bullseye, the Manchester board being of a smaller diameter, with a playing area of only 25 cm across with double and bull areas measuring just 4 mm. The London Fives board is another variation. This has only 12 equal segments numbered 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15, 10, 20, 5, 15, 10 with the doubles and triples being a quarter of an inch wide.”

There have been a variety of darts created over the years but the most common today is the tungsten dart. There are electronic darts but for this blog and for my efforts in tossing darts I remain a steel dart fan and enthusiast. I am recommending a book for novice darters but only because it appealed to me and my studies and rest assured most of the dart books out there are outstanding. In short, find one if this one does not fit your needs and get it. I can tell you when I started to play over twenty years ago, before I laid down my darts in 96, I tossed darts for several years without knowing some very important and critical mechanics, etc., of the dart game. As I take up once again my steel darts I have found a fountain of information to help make the game both enjoyable and competitive. Enjoy, diddle for the middle and let the darts fly!

Thursday, August 18, 2016

My Second First Time

Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)

It has been in excess of twenty years since I tossed darts in a competitive way, with others that is, and tonight will be my first foray back into the world of darts. So far, my initial delving into darts does not say just how much has changed except those sources for supplies has disappeared and the many venues of competition have diminished.

I expected to find more in the google search, especially in my area but alas there were only three available unless I ventured toward San Fran proper or as far away as Sacramento. It appears as to on-line sources that most of darts has circled the wagons back and around British shores or so it seems to me.

I am a tad nervous, not because my darts are not just out of practice but also a bit squeaky due to the aging process for I was a bit younger then. It is nice that my first jump back into the deep end of the pool, by chance, is at the very location I played lo those many years ago at a place called “Paddock Bowl“ in Concord. I am a bit nervous and yet not because age does temper the mind a bit.

It would have been awesome if the bowling alley about a mile from my home had darts … it was not to be. I will write up my experiences when I get back to the blog tomorrow (the tourney is tonight at 8pm Cali time). I feel confident I will throw well and if things are similar I expect a wide range of talent at the Bowl.

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